My 19 year old daughter is moving to Vermont next week. We live in South AL and have never driven in snow or ice!!! Also she is very petite (under 5'0), so an easy to manage vehicle would be best. Can you recommend a reliable, inexpensive, safe vehicle? Should we try to buy it here and let her drive it there, or should she buy it in Vermont? Any special recommendations? Snow tires? Clueless about Cold Weather! TIA!
Rav4 AWD with a good set of winter tires.
My ma is short and loves it.
Get power seats that go up. Do they make longer pedals?
Thank you MountainManJoe!
she got the heated steering wheel too. Arthritic hands can be very stiff on cold mornings.
Greetings from Norway! 4 wheel drive is sweet, but a a front wd will do just fine as long as you have good winter tires. Here is what I do before the winter season:
Service the car if necessary, I prefer to do this in the spring or summer for convenience.
Make sure the battery is good, check & charge!
Measure the anti freeze / coolant freezing point
Use a winter washer fluid
Use some silicon spray/grease on weather stripping to avoid frozen/stuck doors
Oil exterior locks
Have a snowbrush/ ice scraper, flash light, extra gloves, a carpet, a bucket of sand and a showel (nice to have if you're stuck) in the trunk
It's also good to have a reflective vest if you need to do some stunts in the middle of the night.
Have a nice winter!
Thank you DanL! Those are some great (but scary-sounding) suggestions! Maybe I can talk her out of moving to the winter wonderland. I prefer warm, sunny beaches!
I would recommend Honda CRV 4wd, it is not very expensive and nice handling SUV. Not too high for accessing and seeing from behind of the wheel especially in her case. Only tires you will need is all NEW season tires, that would be sufficient. If there is ice, she should not drive that day, because no car will drive properly in ice. She should not drive in cold nights either, because she could end up in black ice driving conditions, meaning there would be ice on the road but she would not see it and that is when we have pile up accidents. We live in Michigan and we get our fair share of snow and ice, and I have been driving here for over 30 years now. Toyota RAV4 is also a good candidate as well.
If you can find one in Alabama, buy it there because it is probably cheaper there, than in Vermont simply due to supply and demand. Just have her car prepped with new tires, changed oil and new brakes and she should be safe and sound! One thing I would recommend is you have a remote start installed, that way she could have the car start in the cold weather before she goes out to it and keep her warm during warming up, instead sitting in the cold car while it warms up to drive. Hope that helps.
Thank you Caruser! I appreciate the details!
oh and one more thing, let your daughter know that in winter, never have her drive with less than 1/2 gas tank in cold weather, because you do not want the air in the tank to condense into water and cause water fuel mixture issues too! Just thought of that! Good Luck!
Wow! Thank you! I will let her know.
I've never had this problem my entire life, and my tank is 1/2 empty, 1/2 of the time.
For what’s it’s worth, you may be better off finding a car near you and getting it checked out yourself/by a professional mechanic before she sets off on the trip, rather than her getting scammed by some stranger, in a new city.
As the others have said, RAV4 & CR-V are your best options for reliable transportation.
If they’re impossible to find within your budget, also look at Subarus.
Anytime LEL!
Hard to find any inexpensive Toyota Rav4 or Honda CR-Vs...
That’s for good reason. They are relatively bulletproof.
We live in NH , and have an 09 Honda fit sport 5 spd.. never got stuck, handles well in the snow with snow tires
Thank you!
You're welcome
I always suggest the fit, it's small, but has a lot of cargo space , front wheel drive, looks good, and is extremely reliable
We have 194k on hers and it runs like new. Still even has the original clutch. All it's needed.is maintenance and couple tie rod ends and stabilizer links, but they were original and our roads suck. So by like 187k I replaced those. We live in NH, we get plenty of snow
Thank you so much!
I have driven front wheel drives, all-wheel drives, rear wheel drives, and 4x4's. Nothing beats a 4x4 but a front wheel drive is OK. I wasn't impressed with all-wheel drives and rear wheel drives don't get around on snow and ice very well. I drove 4x4's at work for over 30 years and sometimes I had to chain up. That said, my personal 4x4 is a 2014 Nissan Xterra but they stopped selling them after 2015. It's been very reliable so getting a used one might not be a bad idea. But if you buy a used vehicle you should have a mechanic check it out and you should get all the fluids changed - people tend not to drain and replace transmission fluid or axle fluids or transfer box fluids or antifreeze - probably because of the long service interval. Even the companies that I worked for didn't change those fluids when they were suppose to - only engine oil got changed. And I know that rear wheel drive isn't good on snow and ice since I have a Mustang with rear wheel drive. Buying new or used will probably give you sticker shock at this point in time. Good luck.
I am so grateful for everyone's helpful advice on here, but I am about to give up on helping her find/buy a car. My eyes are bleeding from looking online at hundreds of vehicles and reviews; videos; etc;. The last car I bought (Feb 2021) was a used 2006 Toyota Avalon with 130k miles - bought it at a dealership; very quickly had a blown headgasket; total loss; no warranty. I am terrified to buy another used car, but new cars are too expensive. I don't know any mechanics and don't know how to find one who would have time to look at potential purchases. After losing so many hours to researching vehicles and still not knowing how to decide or who to trust, it's hard to believe that this is the method for buying a car... Sorry for being a bit defeated this evening. Y'all are truly wonderful people for giving advice and encouragement, and I do appreciate each of you.
I haven't been on here in awhile, what was the outcome?
Since the original poster has not been active here in 2 years he is unlikely to see or respond to your inquiry.